This blog entry (written by a NewsTrust staffer) looks at the complicated factors that may, or may not, be the cause of higher gas prices. It also explores the partisan politics of energy and big business.

The oil story is very hard to explain and even more difficult to unravel. No matter who you talk to everyone has an opinion. In most cases the opinions are partially right. In this story loaded with facts and really no conclusions the reporter lays out the dynamics. The main theme covers the bills working their way through congress. As usual the Bush administration and its Republican supporters will stop anything that will hinder their corporate supporters from earning massive ... More »

This is a well sourced and relatively brief blog post that looks at the complex and well cloaked issues of gas prices, oil company profits and energy legislation from several different angles. While one could infer a bias from the sequence in which information is presented, the blog post advances no conclusion. Far from the last word, the post contributes additional perspective to issues that are buried under mountains of ideological dogma.

This blog post is too brief to delve into the topic in depth, and the author promises follow-up posts to fill in the missing pieces. It seems to me to be fair-handed in its treatment, and several links provided are useful. She cites one source pointing at commodities speculators as critical in oil pricing as China's thirst, and also deals with "excessive profits" which are being reinvested in the companies' own stock buybacks much more than in new oil field development. She outlines ... More »

Is the timing of the mortgage loan crisis followed by the rising cost of oil a coincidence? With the mortgage crisis decimating banks, oil speculation seems to be the place to be to recover the huge amount lost. Complex topic that needs more well sourced thoughtful articles like this.

I like the format of bringing up points of view and them comparing them to other opinions. In so doing, Wellington effectively refutes some of the major arguments for soaring gas prices, and I look forward to the next installment.

Good links to most sources, evidence all around. Could use evidence of Republicans making arguments that raising taxes "would discourage domestic oil production".

futures speculators,greed,increased demand as the article stated could be driving up prices but an ever diminishing supply is the real reason. To expect politicians to do anything about oil prices is folly. fair article

This story is pathetic conspiracy stuff. 90% of the world's oil is controlled by state oil companies. Trying to blame US oil companies for the situation is pathetic. The real vilain is the US congress. Drilling for domestic supplies is prohibited in many offshore and Alaskan sites for no good reason. A constructive move would be to put a tariff on imported oil to boost the incentives for domestic oil. Cap and trade is just a hidden gas tax. A gas tax would be a lot less complicated. ... More »

Recent content from NewsTrust has revealed it's editors to be obviously liberal - an odd criticism from me, since I'm fairly liberal myself. Were there valid reasons to scuttle these bills? We don't know from this article. It would have been interesting to hear what the senate republicans had to say against them. Without that balance, the article is full of facts, but nigh unto meaningless.

Without offering any firm conclusions of her own, the author gives an impartial and fairly encylopedic coverage of the commentary others on both sides of the political aisle have made on a complex and important issue that far too often, sees only soundbite answers. While some reviewers might refer to the discussion of the impact of commodities speculation on the price of gasoline as being "pathetic conspiracy (expletitive deleted)" the reader will no doubt remember the recent ... More »

This opinion piece has some journalistic merit. The author does not provide any context for the actual effects from a "windfall profits" tax. Would it apply to the majority of corporations in other industries, whose profits after all are higher than the oil companies by percentage? What really happens when tax rates go up? This economics context is missing, though the author does note two articles that do argue against tax rate increases. The author does not point out that the five ... More »

This opinion blog post casts a broad floodlight on the topic of the abuse of the native obfuscation in the macroeconomic systems of the oil industry, by the oil industry and commodities markets. The recognition of these types of abuses is critical if we are to continue to call the "Free Markets". I look forward to a series , by this Author, covering the remaining energy markets, the Credit/Mortgage industry, and the commodities markets that trade our food.

This is utter crap. For an article that really shows what's going on with taxes and profits of oil companies, take a look at http://www.reason.com/blog/show/126976.html. I agree with another reviewer that NewsTrust has a VERY big leftist bias. It's Democrat vs. Republican with Republican being evil. First, there are more than 2 parties in the U.S. Second, what's with the daily, obvious bias?